Jazz from Geoff...THE BLOG 

I have to tell you, that in the last 2 days, I have actually seen and heard some LIVE JAZZ!

Great Hampton Cricket Club isn’t a well know jazz venue, and it IS seemingly in the middle of nowhere, so it IS socially distant! But on Sunday afternoon it missed all the showers and hosted some live jazz performed by what looked like one of the versions of “The Clive Burton Celebration Quartet”.

It was so refreshing to hear the Hedsor style of jazz again, and to meet a few of the Hedsor Jazz faithful once again. It was organised by The Speen Committee for the support of local Hospices. I guess around 100 people came, and as we were asked to donate £10 each for our afternoon, I guess they have raised a good sum of money for these charitable causes.

 Photos from  Mrs Wilkins, Mr Swaffield, and myself .

There is still very little more to say about live jazz at Hedsor. We still wait and see if and when the government think it can be allowed, and if a yes is heard, then we will run a trial as required by the government to test our ability to meet all the rules.

It will of course still need an audience who are prepared to come INDOORS to listen to live jazz.

Now on to “other things”.

My garage is, as of today, back in operation as a workshop following from the flood. Hooray! When working in there, I have the ability to listen to all kinds of music on all kinds of media, and today I rediscovered a tape with some Roy Williams on it. 

My collection of tapes, and some LP’s were some of the items affected by the water, and I have been going through the driest bits of the tapes out there, and the Roy Williams is a gem. Recorded in 1980 with The Eddie Thompson Trio it was first issued (in the form I have it on tape) as an LP. 

I have now researched my CD collection and discovered that it was reissued on CD (with some missing tracks) alongside another with those missing tracks and a few more. It/they are a wonderful exploration of Roy’s trombone ability. I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to Roy live. He has played Hedsor a number of times, and it is very sad that a stroke has curtailed his playing. But these 1980 recordings are well worth seeking out to remind you of the great player he was, with Alex Welsh, Humphrey Lyttleton and John Barnes to name just some of the musicians I saw him with, as well as of course Clive Burton and The Quintet.. Artwork for each below. They are HEP CD 2007 and HEP CD 2015.

 

Prior to my listen to Roy Williams I played a compilation of music that I made initially for the late Harriet Wilson from her collection of 45’s. No, not of jazz, but of the sort of music she liked as a teenager. “Right Said Fred”, “Hole in the Ground”, Je T’aime,..Moi Non Plus” (which I think was band from the BBC as someone was getting breathless!!), and “Lady Godiva” are all included, plus some Beatles tracks. A wide variety that excluded jazz completely. Yet, I remembered them, and the Bernard Cribbins ones are classics of their type. So a bit of nostalgia, which WAS then followed by the Roy Williams from the first CD above.

For those of you who have downloaded recordings via my DropBox account in the past please be aware that I have had to change my password as someone has started sending out a link to a PDF file that isn’t open able that purports to come form me. This isn’t associated with me, and to be safe (from maybe a different sort of virus) if you have received a message like that please delete it and do an antivirus scan.

Again, if you do wish to comment or communicate with me over this blog or Hedsor Jazz please use the email address below.

 

Octogeoff@outlook.com